The Moment I Became a Grammar Vandal

I already spoke about this at length in the previous post, not to mention in my original blog, katesadventures.com, so I won’t rattle on and on about this.

The adhesive comma came from Lynne Truss’s book Eats, Shoots and Leaves. To be honest, I started the book and don’t really have much of a desire to finish it. I’ll elaborate on the book in a later entry. It just blew my mind that this sign ended up in public. Aren’t there editors that work for Reebok, or Reebok’s advertising company?!

Most people know that when directing a statement at someone, the comma separates the name from the rest of the sentence.

Examples:

Those are my urine-stained pants, Floyd, and I do hope you return them soon.Really, Mathilda, do you find it necessary to be a cold-hearted sycophant every day of the week, or just the days that you see me?I’ll see you in hell, just as I do each day between the hours of 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, Joe.

The comma, you see, is necessary. You make the pause in your speech, and that is why you add a comma.

The fact that this error made the final cut in Reebok’s advertising is beyond egregious. Because of it, I believe that I need to write a letter to Reebok, and possibly also to Reebok’s ad agency, letting them know just how much this error chills my bones.